New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-23
SUPPLEMENT-.
PAGES 9 TO IL.
NOTES FROM LONDON.
SIR CHARLES DILKE-SERJEANT BALLAN-
TINE-POSTAGE STAMPS AND POTTERY.

TINE-POSTAGE STAMPS AND POTTERY.
IYaou THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, January IL.
Sir Charles Dilkes article on The Present
Position Of European Politics" in the January
Fortnichtly il remarkable for a number of
things He is thought to have used for the pur-
pose of this essay some of the knowledge he had
ACQUIRED as Under Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs; notably in his reference to the Treaty of
Berlin and to the secret agreements and "con-
versations among powerful people," There are
some slips which are perhaps not less remarkable.
and of them is in reference to what he calls the
policy of pourboire This says Sir Charles, had not
been invented in 1866. 1t was precisely in 1866
that the phrase had been invented and
the inventor was no less parsonage
than Prince Bismarck. The story may be found In
KazkOs Deux Chandeliers" Prince Bismarck
had held his first interview with the French envoy
at the Prussian headquarters in Moravia. and pro-
posed to him that France should seek indemnity
for Prussian aggandi2ement, II she wanted one
along the Meuse and the Scheldt. NJ Benedettps
demands were the foreseen sequel to Napoieon's
"great war for German nationality" which the
French Caesar had recommended to Bismarck at
Bisrritz Having recommended It, and having
meant to profit by it when Austria and Prussia
should each be exhausted by their efforts, and hav-
ing been folled IN this plan and dismayed by the
off poor N. Benedict to the battlefield to get what
he could in recognition of French counsel and neu-
trality; and In reward of it, And then it was that
Prince Bismarck wrote to former minister of the
Germanic Confederation: I" La France fat une
pOlitiQue de pourbOire."
This article is the first of series, and one of the
steps by which Sir Charles Dixie hopes to climb to
the position whence the verdict in Crawford against
Crawford sent him tumbling headlong He has
chosen good subject, and one of which he knows
q hundred times more than most EDglishmen for
the knowledge which most Englishmen have of
Continental politics is Of the most rudimentary
kind. This first paper attained to the distinction
of being discussed in The Times edtorially 1t was
noticed also in an evening paper which has inter-
ested itself good deal-apparently from its usual
mixed motives of pruriency and sensationallsm-in
the Crawford Dixie business. There is nothing like
having friend III the press-a high-minded friend,
superior to all considerations of friendship, real or
spurious. This Sir Charles discovered last year.
and must have been reminded of when Mr.. Stead
assured his readers that the article might be known
as Sir Charles Dike's bv its slips of grammar.
Well, it will take good many articles with all the
slips of grammar duly corrected to make up for
that other slip from which Sir Charles seems still
to believe he may recover
SERGEANT Ballantines death leaves gap He
even when he was above it. and at his zenith. his
position had something equvocal about it. Social
position he had none. in very limited sense;
general society knew HIM not. There wa time
when he had reputation as story teller. 1t did
not here survive the publication of his memoirs.
any more than in America his fame. whatever II |
NAV have been, ontlived his uplucky attempt at
lecturng. One of my earliest recoections IN Eng
land is of meeting with SERGEANT Ballantine at a
l., IIa llaI fb pnucho tmnt tim
,llner, and told stories of the kind which may be
supposed to have been current during the last GEN.
tury As he was then still IN large practice l |
thought HIM an interesting figure but his friends
seemed to think some apology was necessary for
his license. Twice three times / heard him in
court; last of all when he led for Mr.. Robertson,
of the Westminster Aquarium. who thought him
self libelled by Mr., LabOuchere. The trlal was |
sort of duel between SERGEANT Ballantlne
then rapidly gong down hill. and Mr..
Charles Russell, who coming moro
rapidly still to the top There was so much sparr-
ing between the two that Lord Chief Justice Cock
burn gave up all attempts at keeping them In order
When appealed to some point OF procedure he
said with smile, " You must fight out your own
auarres" and they did. SERGEANT Ballantine never
again. l think. appe; ed in case of any celebrity
Solicitors had lost confidence in him his faculties
were growing blunt. and his power of work dimn-
seemed to me worthy OF his reputation.
The word outsider has lately been queried by
some over-senstive soul, and authority for its use
demanded in that tone of confident righteousness
which belongs alike the Phariseo in religion and
the purist in language. Perhaps the purist has
right to be dissatisfied with the testimony of the
dictionaries. He will, indeed find the word in
1.-THE Imperial" where it is not discredted. but
neither Is 1t sufficiently supported. The only
authors from whom the word is cited are Dickens
and Lawrence the latter of whom | take TO
be the writer moro commonly known as
Guy Livingstone. Mr. Guy Livingstone Lawrence
is out of court and Dickens. witness who has lit
tie or no weight with jury critical in English.
But an authority Of very different calibre may now
be appealed TO- Mr.. Matthew Arnold has set the
seal of his approval on the word. He nses outsider
in his article on the Zenith of Conservatism in the
January number Of The Nineteenth Century; uses IT
not once, or as il by accident, but three times III
the course of ten lines. He uses it, moreover. to
describe himself in his relation to professional
politics Perhaps he would call the professors OF
professional politics insiders; word to which
the Imperial Dictionary gives place. Ii seems less
W wanted less convenience Of speech. than outsider.
but will not undertake to predict whether Mr..
Arnold may not find it convenient, and so employ it
in bis next paper. II he does employ 1t. the over
sensitive souls of the purists and pedants in
language may feel wound, but the word will mono
the less pass current from Mr.. Arnolds mint
The new postage stamps are by common consent
hideons. No one is deluded by the hatternR de- !
scriptions of them which appeared in the London !
papers on the morning of the issue OF these ugly
little bits of paper. The style OF the commu- ,
niQues for the Post Office and other Government G
departments is easily enough recognized. IL 10 4
time for the respectable Mr. Horsley-he is the JOY
Of the British matron who has prudish notions
about pctures-tO ask where are the students OF ,
the South Kensington School of Art do not =